
ATMOS receives a reentry license. Indra to buy over 89% of Hispasat for €725 million. D-Orbit secures a new launch contract with Orbex. And more.
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Maria Varmazas
You're listening to the N2K space network.
Dave
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Maria Varmazas
I'm Maria Varmazas and this is T minus T minus 20 seconds. Go for deploy. Astrobotic's Griffin lander will deliver an Astrolabe rover to the moon as part of astrobotics Griffin Mission 1. The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos has been dismissed by the Kremlin. Orbex has signed a new customer agreement with space logistics and transportation company Deorbit. Spanish defense company Indra agrees to buy 89.7% of satellite operator Hispasat for 725 million euros. Atmos becomes the first European company to obtain a RE entry license for its Phoenix Capsul. And today we're bringing you another great chat from spacecom. Amalak Bhadesha is the CEO and co founder of Orbital Composites. Find out about their in space assembly and manufacturing vision later in the program.
Amalak Bhadesha
Foreign.
Maria Varmazas
Let'S dive into Thursday's intel briefing, shall we? Germany's Atmos Space Cargo, best known as Atmos, is the first European company to secure an FAA reentry license for its Phoenix reentry capsule. Phoenix is targeted to launch on the Bandwagon 3 rideshare mission with SpaceX no earlier than April 2025. The capsule is aiming to complete two orbits around the Earth before attempting its atmospheric reentry. The Phoenix mission is the first of a planned series of orbital flights designed to refine Atmos's technology. The inaugural flight is aiming to gather critical data on the capsule and its inflatable heat shield. The mission aims to accelerate the development of a versatile and robust RE entry platform for commercial applications, and the mission is expected to conclude with the prototype's demise during RE entry.
Dave
Aww.
Maria Varmazas
Yep, they're not expecting it to fully land, but they do believe that the test flight will provide valuable flight data for the next iteration of their platform, called the what else Phoenix 2 capsule. We wish them the best of luck. Spanish defense company Indra has agreed to buy 89.7% of satellite operator Hispasat for 725 million euros. However, the agreement is still pending regulatory approvals. Indra is 28% owned by the Spanish government and recently focused on its defense and aerospace businesses to benefit from European countries increased military budgets. Indra says the acquisition is a result of the company's desire to guarantee the control of communications in space. The agreement includes the purchase of Hispasat's 43% stake in the social capital of Hizdesat, which is a company in which Indra already has a 7% holding lots of percentages in this story today, Indra Space will be the name of the new fully integrated space company, bringing together both the civil and military offers and positioning Indra as one of the leading European players in the space sector. Over to the UK now Orbex has announced a new customer agreement with space logistics and transportation company Deorbit. Under the agreement, Deorbit UK will have access to two launches aboard Orbex prime, which is the company's micro launcher, over the course of the next three years. Orbex is aiming to launch prime from Saxford Spaceport in Scotland, with the first launch expected later this year. Orbex has a dedicated launch pad and the ability to launch 10 flights per year from the Shetland Launch facility. Jonathan Furse, chief corporate development officer at Deorbit, said in the press release that Orbx Prime's missions will provide valuable insights into the UK's orbital launch capabilities and expand Deorbit's portfolio of orbital launch solutions. It is an exciting time to be part of the UK space industry and we look forward to contributing to its continued growth and innovation. Heading over to Russia now and Roscosmos is having a tough week with delays to their first launch of the year, and now the head of the Russian space agency has been dismissed by the Kremlin. Yesterday, the Kremlin released a statement that Yuri Borisov, who had headed Roscosmos since July 2022, had been replaced by Dmitry Bakanov, a deputy transport Minister who ran a satellite company before joining the government. The Kremlin has downplayed the dismissal as a, quote, rotation and say that they have had no complaints against Borisov and Venturi. Astrolabe, better known as just Astrolab, has announced that Astrobotics Griffin Lander will deliver an Astrolabe rover to the moon as part of Astrobotic's Griffin Mission 1. The flip rover, which stands for Flex Lunar Innovation Platform, is aiming to be deployed on the lunar South Pole. And the Astrobotic mission, originally carrying the Viper payload as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative, is still scheduled for delivery at the end of this year. And that concludes today's intel briefing, handing it over to our senior producer, Alice Carouse. Now, Alice, what stories didn't make it into the show today that our audience should know about?
Alice Carouse
Thanks, Maria. We have two quick reads to increase your space knowledge today. One on US and Japan's bilateral national security space cooperation efforts. And the other is an announcement from Momentum, who have secured a new multimillion dollar contract to support NASA's space infrastructure.
Maria Varmazas
And for those listeners, where can they find those stories?
Alice Carouse
All the stories that we mention throughout our show can always be found in the selected reading section of our show notes. Or alternatively, you can find them on our website space.n2k.com and click on this episode title.
Maria Varmazas
Hey T minus crew. If your business is looking to grow your voice in the industry, expand the reach of your thought leadership, or recruit talent, T minus can help. We'd love to hear from you. Just send us an email@space2k.com or send us a note through our website so we can connect about building a program to meet your goals.
Dave
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Maria Varmazas
Our guest today is Amalak Badeisha and he is the CEO and co founder of Orbital Composites. And I caught up with Amalak at Spacecom in Florida and asked him about Orbital Composite's business plan.
Amalak Bhadesha
The goal is to be able to, you know, put people on Mars. To do that, you actually need to build things over there.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
And to even get to there. There's a lot of advantages to build these things directly in space. So in space, manufacturing in our mind is the next big hugely disruptive technology after reusable rockets.
Maria Varmazas
Right.
Amalak Bhadesha
Because it's a step function change in the cost of building infrastructure off Earth.
Maria Varmazas
Yes.
Amalak Bhadesha
Whether in space or on another celestial bodies.
Maria Varmazas
Right.
Amalak Bhadesha
And it's a hard, hard problem. But that's the goal we set off with. And then we peel the layers back. Okay, so if you want to print a spaceship in space with what, what do you need? What materials are you going to use? You know, what kind of core capabilities. So if you look at that, you know, the most sort of common materials are you need some kind of material that holds things together. You need something that reinforces it. Right. And then you have copper wires because there are signals going around everywhere. Those are the three most foundational things. And when you can put them together in creative ways, interesting things could happen. So, for example, now if you look at 3D printing, you can make all kinds of shapes, but it's not strong enough. It needs to get stronger. So what do we do? Right, we want to make it stronger by reinforcing it with some kind of reinforcement mechanism, most commonly carbon fiber. But it could be any other types of fibers. It turns out that's not really being done at the time. And even still today it's pretty rare. So that was one thing. Then the other thing is, well, 3D printers are first of all small. They only kind of print in this XY and Z direction. So we don't want to be constrained. So then the other part of this was what motion platforms make sense? So we chose to go with robotics. Right. A standard industrial six axis robot. But don't stop at one. What if we can use many robots together? Right, Okay. A very complex system, very complex system, highly autonomous. And I call it, actually, because I came from the semiconductor world, I call it the GPU of robotics, meaning parallel processing, parallel printing. How do you go faster? You can go faster by printing faster, but that comes at a huge sacrifice of print resolution and other problems. So instead, the better way to go.
Maria Varmazas
Is to go parallel as opposed to in serial.
Amalak Bhadesha
In serial, which is a classic CPU versus GPU. And then in the early days, people hated GPUs, like, oh, we have to program it differently. So we're building these collections of technologies.
Maria Varmazas
Right?
Amalak Bhadesha
There is the materials aspect. There is how do you move those materials around to make more interesting shapes.
Maria Varmazas
Yes, in 3D space.
Amalak Bhadesha
Right, in 3D space, not in planar space. And then there's A scalability aspect. Can you only print inside your little box or can you make things that actually at the right scale.
Maria Varmazas
Right, right.
Amalak Bhadesha
And you kind of need to address all these problems.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
Which are relevant on Earth and relevant in space.
Maria Varmazas
Of course.
Dave
Yeah.
Maria Varmazas
And I would imagine with your background in semiconductors, with just so much materials, material science there, I mean, that feels like a very natural fit. I was saying to you before we started, I was like, when you scratch the surface of space, it's material science all the way down. And it's just, it's amazing to me how many times that adage seems to come true. And have you all had to basically come up with new materials?
Amalak Bhadesha
So we like to say we don't invent chemistry, but we change the physics. And this is a really important point. And the reason for that is that first of all, there are very large chemistry companies. And so if you invent new chemistry, it takes a long time to incredibly capex intensive to scale that up in production. But even more importantly is the qualification timelines are very, very long and you can't really easily compete with these material companies. So we found other tricks. Right. And oftentimes what happened is because in composites especially, the manufacturing is constrained by the manufacturing equipment.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, yeah, yep.
Amalak Bhadesha
So as a consequence of that, people stopped tweaking and playing with the physics and everybody has limited themselves to the chemistry. Right. And so we don't, we have interesting materials, but it's because we changed the physics, not the chemistry, which means we can use existing materials that are already.
Maria Varmazas
Qualified in a very different way and.
Amalak Bhadesha
Do that much faster, but still achieve incredible new effects that are not possible with traditional forms of material.
Maria Varmazas
All right, that is a great tee up to the next question. So what are those new things that you're achieving?
Amalak Bhadesha
So, you know, the long term goal is putting, you know, building what I call gigafactories in space. Right. And the goal is to be able to, instead of launching these megastructures. If you look at what it costs to build space stations, it's, you know, tens and billions of dollars. If you look at what it cost us to send a telescope up there, these things are incredibly expensive. Why are they expensive? Because you have to test it to death before launch.
Maria Varmazas
You can't get it wrong. Right?
Amalak Bhadesha
You can't get it wrong. And the launch is like a 12 minute car crash. So Cole, the founder of Orbital, he likes to tell the story that, look, it's like you have a Christmas tree, you've got all these ornaments on it, decorated and then you want to put it in a 12 minute car crash and then hope that after the crash it's all still intact. That's, you know, satellite engineering in a nutshell. And, and what ISAM does is it changes that paradigm.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah, it does.
Amalak Bhadesha
We, we initially, you know, ship materials up and just start making things over there.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
And start assembling them. And you can start building much larger structures than what's possible. And get around your journey of launch fairing. Right. Even starship, the launch fairing is still only 8 meters. That's not huge.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
We want to build, you know, 100 meter antennas. One kilometer scale antennas. You might ask why. Well, so.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah. For what end? Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
Two of the biggest markets on Earth are energy and communications. Now imagine you want global scale energy. Global scale communications. The common denominator between those two things is giant antennas.
Maria Varmazas
Yep. Which sometimes when we try to send them up, they fail.
Amalak Bhadesha
They don't work.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah. Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
Because the biggest antennas we send up are what's called unfurlable antennas.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
Basically like your umbrellas. And it turns out those hinges are quite problematic.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
And they always get stuck.
Maria Varmazas
Yep.
Amalak Bhadesha
So there are very large number of commercial and defense satellites up there which never unfurled properly. And they're just sitting there dead.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
Billions and billions of dollars spent on this. Just most recently viasat had this problem.
Maria Varmazas
I was just thinking about them specifically.
Amalak Bhadesha
They had this 22 meter antenna.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah. I was very excited about it.
Amalak Bhadesha
And it just refused to open.
Maria Varmazas
Yep, I remember that story.
Amalak Bhadesha
So. So that's precisely the problem.
Maria Varmazas
Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
Why deal with that problem? If you start manufacturing and assembling these things in space, you can bypass that problem. Yeah, but, but they also have a limit. You can only make umbrellas so large until it becomes problematic. So you'll have a hard limit on how big these can get. We're going to shatter those limits with in space servicing, assembly and manufacturing. So the largest markets, global scale communication, direct to cell. Right. There's billions of cell phones.
Maria Varmazas
We're all moving towards it right now.
Amalak Bhadesha
If your satellites could talk to it, that's a huge market. And then obviously with space based solar, you can build global scale technology for energy. Common denominator antenna. Now you need giant antennas and the only way to really make them at that scale is to make them over there.
Maria Varmazas
Makes sense. Yep. Yeah.
Amalak Bhadesha
And so we have a great partnership on space based solar with Virtusoulis, which is a startup leading the charge there. And, and then we're working with the space force on the Building antennas for other use cases. You need big antennas if you want to look finer on the ground. Big antennas if you want to look deeper into space. Bigger antennas help. So space domain awareness, you need bigger antennas if you want to go further into space. You want to build a a new high bandwidth deep space network, you need big antennas. Big antennas is answer to all your problems in life. So that's how I look at it. So we want to be the company that figures out how to build giant antennas in space.
Maria Varmazas
We'll be right back.
Dave
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Maria Varmazas
Welcome back. NASA is getting ready for their very first live stream on Twitch from the International Space Station. That will mean something to some of us. And for the rest, well, sorry. Now, NASA's been on Twitch for a while and it's a live streaming platform popular with gamers, and they've already got over a million subscribers to their channel. Not bad. But live streaming from the ISS will be a first. And that's coming up on February 12th at 11:45 Eastern. So Mark those calendars. It'll be a Twitch exclusive. So Twitch TV. NASA, by the way, and it's called Live from Space, NASA's first Twitch convo from the space station Astronaut Emoji. So, okay, why Twitch? Well, for those of us who use the platform a lot, it's kind of a place you go to hang out in the background of your day. And there are a lot of Twitch users who are fiercely loyal to the platform. So doing outreach through Twitch is a great way to meet a big audience where they already are up until now.
Amalak Bhadesha
Ish.
Maria Varmazas
NASA's been sort of just mirroring video content on there. But this upcoming ISS chat will be specifically made for Twitch, which means to me, presumably, the astronauts will be able to see all the running commentary in chat. That would be both Don Pettit and Matt Dominic, who will be talking to Twitch users. And I'm sure it's going to be interesting to see how they react to how Twitch viewers react in chat to someone streaming from about 250 miles above the Earth's surface. That's it for T minus for February 6, 2025, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes@space.n2k.com we're privileged that N2K and podcast like Team Minus are part of the daily routine of many of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector, from the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. N2K Senior Producer is Alice Carouse. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kielpe is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Ramazas. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. T minus.
T-Minus Space Daily: "ATMOS, Don’t Call It a Comeback" Summary
Release Date: February 6, 2025
Host: Maria Varmazas | N2K Networks
In this episode of T-Minus Space Daily, host Maria Varmazas delivers a comprehensive intelligence briefing on the latest developments in the global space industry. The episode delves into significant announcements from European and Spanish space companies, a strategic partnership in the UK space sector, leadership changes within Russia’s Roscosmos, and an upcoming lunar mission by Astrobotic. Additionally, the program features an insightful interview with Amalak Bhadesha, CEO and Co-Founder of Orbital Composites, exploring the future of in-space manufacturing and assembly.
Atmos Space Cargo, a leading European space company, has achieved a milestone by securing the first FAA reentry license for its Phoenix reentry capsule. Scheduled to launch on SpaceX's Bandwagon 3 rideshare mission no earlier than April 2025, the Phoenix capsule aims to complete two orbits around Earth before executing an atmospheric reentry.
Maria Varmazas [03:12]: "Phoenix is targeted to launch on the Bandwagon 3 rideshare mission with SpaceX no earlier than April 2025."
The mission is the inaugural flight in a series aimed at refining Atmos's reentry technology. While the prototype is not expected to survive the reentry, the test will provide crucial data for the development of the Phoenix 2 capsule, enhancing the robustness and versatility of Atmos's reentry platforms for future commercial applications.
Maria Varmazas [04:01]: "They do believe that the test flight will provide valuable flight data for the next iteration of their platform, called the Phoenix 2 capsule."
Spanish defense conglomerate Indra has announced its agreement to acquire an 89.7% stake in satellite operator Hispasat for €725 million. This strategic move, pending regulatory approvals, is part of Indra's broader strategy to bolster its defense and aerospace sectors amid increased military budgets across Europe.
Maria Varmazas [05:20]: "Indra Space will be the name of the new fully integrated space company, bringing together both the civil and military offers and positioning Indra as one of the leading European players in the space sector."
The acquisition includes purchasing Hispasat's 43% stake in Hizdesat, where Indra already holds a 7% share. This merger aims to ensure control over space-based communications, enhancing Indra's stature in the European space landscape.
UK-based Orbex has entered into a new customer agreement with Deorbit, a space logistics and transportation company. Under this agreement, Deorbit UK will secure two launches aboard Orbex's Prime micro launcher within the next three years, leveraging Orbex's launch facilities at Saxford Spaceport in Scotland.
Maria Varmazas [06:50]: "Jonathan Furse, chief corporate development officer at Deorbit, said... 'Orbex Prime's missions will provide valuable insights into the UK's orbital launch capabilities and expand Deorbit's portfolio of orbital launch solutions.'"
With the capability to conduct up to ten launches annually from the Shetland Launch facility, Orbex aims to advance the UK's presence in the orbital launch market, fostering growth and innovation within the national space industry.
In a significant shake-up, the Kremlin has dismissed Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, replacing him with Dmitry Bakanov, the Deputy Transport Minister with a background in satellite companies.
Maria Varmazas [06:30]: "The Kremlin has downplayed the dismissal as a 'rotation' and stated that they have had no complaints against Borisov."
This leadership change comes amid delays in Roscosmos's first launch of the year, signaling potential shifts in the agency's strategic direction and operational priorities.
Astrobotic has announced that its Griffin Lander will deliver an Astrolabe rover to the Moon as part of Griffin Mission 1. Scheduled for late 2025, the mission targets deployment at the lunar South Pole, contributing to NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative.
Maria Varmazas [06:45]: "The mission aims to accelerate the development of a versatile and robust RE entry platform for commercial applications."
The Griffin Mission 1 will carry the Viper payload, focusing on testing the inflatable heat shield technology critical for reliable atmospheric reentry.
Following the intel briefing, Maria interviews Amalak Bhadesha, offering a deep dive into Orbital Composites' vision for in-space assembly and manufacturing.
Bhadesha outlines the company's ambition to revolutionize space infrastructure by enabling the construction of large-scale structures directly in orbit.
Amalak Bhadesha [09:22]: "The goal is to be able to, you know, put people on Mars. To do that, you actually need to build things over there."
He emphasizes that in-space manufacturing represents the next disruptive technology following reusable rockets, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of building and deploying infrastructure in space.
Amalak Bhadesha [09:31]: "Manufacturing in our mind is the next big hugely disruptive technology after reusable rockets."
Bhadesha discusses the limitations of current 3D printing technologies, such as strength constraints and dimensional restrictions, and how Orbital Composites is addressing these issues through innovative material reinforcement and multi-robot systems.
Amalak Bhadesha [12:30]: "The better way to go is to go parallel as opposed to in serial."
By leveraging multiple robotic arms, Orbital Composites aims to enhance printing speed and structural integrity without compromising resolution, akin to the parallel processing capabilities of GPUs in computing.
Highlighting their approach to material science, Bhadesha explains that instead of developing new chemical compositions, Orbital Composites modifies the physics of existing materials to achieve superior performance and scalability.
Amalak Bhadesha [13:43]: "We don't invent chemistry, but we change the physics."
This strategy allows for faster implementation and integration with already qualified materials, bypassing the lengthy and capital-intensive process of developing new chemical compounds.
Amalak Bhadesha [14:33]: "We have interesting materials, but it's because we changed the physics, not the chemistry."
Bhadesha elaborates on the company's long-term goal of establishing gigafactories in space, enabling the construction of massive antennas for global communications and space-based energy solutions.
Amalak Bhadesha [17:22]: "Big antennas is answer to all your problems in life. So that's how I look at it. So we want to be the company that figures out how to build giant antennas in space."
By manufacturing and assembling large-scale structures in orbit, Orbital Composites seeks to overcome the limitations of launch fairing sizes, thereby facilitating the deployment of expansive and high-performance systems not feasible with traditional launch methods.
Maria announces NASA's first live stream from the International Space Station (ISS) on the gaming platform Twitch, scheduled for February 12th at 11:45 Eastern. Dubbed "Live from Space," this event aims to engage a broader audience by tapping into Twitch's large and loyal user base.
Maria Varmazas [21:38]: "NASA's been on Twitch for a while... But live streaming from the ISS will be a first."
The live session will feature conversations with astronauts Don Pettit and Matt Dominick, allowing real-time interaction with viewers and showcasing life aboard the ISS from a new, interactive perspective.
This episode of T-Minus Space Daily offers a detailed snapshot of the dynamic developments shaping the global space industry. From Atmos's pioneering reentry technologies and Indra's strategic acquisitions to Orbex's UK partnerships and significant leadership changes within Roscosmos, the briefing underscores the rapid advancements and strategic maneuvers within the sector. The in-depth conversation with Amalak Bhadesha illuminates the future of in-space manufacturing, highlighting innovative approaches that could redefine space infrastructure and exploration. Additionally, NASA's initiative to engage with the gaming community through Twitch represents a novel outreach strategy, aiming to inspire and connect with a diverse audience.
For more detailed insights and continuous updates, visit N2K Space.
Prepared by the T-Minus Crew | N2K Networks